The present invention relates to a novel sugarless confection, and, in particular, to an amorphous, clear sugar-free hard candy and the method of making such candy.
Over the years, there has been a demand on the confectionary industry for various reasons to produce a sugarless hard candy confection resembling ordinary hard candy in appearance and organoleptic qualities such as smoothness, non-tackiness, etc. Attempts have been made for example, to replace sucrose, corn syrup, flavoring, and coloring with combinations of sorbitol, mannitol, and other materials including coloring and flavor.
While sorbitol is particularly suitable as a candy ingredient because of its close resemblance to sugar in sweetness and nutritive values, hard candy confections which include sorbitol are extremely difficult to prepare because of the inherent tendency of the candy pieces to remain soft or tacky instead of solidfying into hard candy as desired. At one time hard candy made from sorbitol solution, crystalline sorbitol and crystalline mannitol usually included a gum, such as larch gum,, acacia or tragacanth, in order to promote the "setting-up" or solidification of the confection. Since the inclusion of gum necessitates relatively low cooking temperatures and a relatively high moisture content in the solution from which the confection is prepared in order to keep the gum suspended, the crystallization time for the confection is extremely long, frequently requiring as much as several days in processing time. Moreover, when sorbitol-containing hard candy confections prepared with gum crystallize, clarity is destroyed owing to the presence of the colloidally dispersed gum and to the surface crystallization of the sorbitol and mannitol.
Attempts to overcome some of the problems associated with the making of sorbitol-containing hard candy include processes such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,438,787 to DuRoss in which an aqueous solution containing sorbitol and not more than about one-fourth part by weight of mannitol per unit weight of sorbitol is heated to reduce the moisture to not more than 0.5% by weight of the solution before cooking to a temperature within the range of from 160.degree. F. to 200.degree. F. and seeding with no less than 0.5% by weight finely ground crystalline sorbitol, mannitol and/or carbohydrates to form a sugar-free hard candy upon solidification in a controlled environment.
Another process is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,371,626 to Hachtman wherein an aqueous solution of sorbitol is heated to a temperature above melting point of sorbitol and sufficiently high to evaporate the water and then depositing the solution into thin-walled cavities of plastic mold while maintaining the temperature above the setting temperature but below the temperature at which the plastic mold cavity walls will heat-deform. This process was intended primarily to eliminate the need for starch molding which is a messy, dusty operation resulting in a cloudy starch-coated product.
Even though both of the processes described above reduce the time usually required for a confectionary aqueous sorbitol solution to set or solidify sufficiently to further process hard candy units, such improved set times are still far in excess of a solidifying time which is appropriate for a high volume production of sorbitol-containing hard candy units. The DuRoss process takes at least an hour to yield a hard candy product while the Hachtman method requires eight hours.
Another method described in U.K. No. 1,403,696 to ICI includes melting sorbitol and mannitol crystals using only an amount of water sufficient to effect solution of the crystals. According to this disclosure a set time of 15 minutes may be attained if the temperature of the melt is 140.degree. F. when placed in the molds. However, at a temperature of only 140.degree. F, the viscosity of the melt would predictably be so high as to preclude processing on a continuous basis.
Other disclosures such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,845 to Liebrand and U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,092 to Halik, et al. show variations in cooking and processing in order to achieve different product results.
However, in view of the continued demand for a sugar-free hard candy, it is an object of the present invention to provide a sorbitol-sweetened hard candy confection having a glass-like appearance and excellent mouth feel which can be manufactured in high volume by a continuous process.